Joan Miro
Joan Miro
Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983was a Catalan/Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramist born in Barcelona.
Biography:
Joan Miró Ferra was born April 20, 1893, in Barcelona. At the age of 14, he went to business school in Barcelona and also attended La Lonja’s Escuela Superior de Artes Industriales y Bellas Artes in the same city. Upon completing three years of art studies, he took a position as a clerk. After suffering a nervous breakdown, he abandoned business and resumed his art studies, attending Francesc Galí’s Escola d’Art in Barcelona from 1912 to 1915. Miró received early encouragement from the dealer José Dalmau, who gave him his first solo show at his gallery in Barcelona in 1918. In 1917 he met Francis Picabia.
In 1920 Miró made his first trip to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso. From this time, Miró divided his time between Paris and Montroig, Spain. In Paris he associated with the poets Max Jacob, Pierre Reverdy, and Tristan Tzara and participated in Dada [more] activities. Dalmau organized Miró’s first solo show in Paris, at the Galerie la Licorne in 1921. His work was included in the Salon d’Automne of 1923. In 1924 Miró joined the Surrealist group. His solo show at the Galerie Pierre, Paris, in 1925 was a major Surrealist event; Miró was included in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre that same year. He visited the Netherlands in 1928 and began a series of paintings inspired by Dutch masters. That year he also executed his first papiers collés (pasted papers) and collages. In 1929 he started his experiments in lithography, and his first etchings date from 1933. During the early 1930s he made Surrealist sculptures incorporating painted stones and found objects. In 1936 Miró left Spain because of the civil war; he returned in 1941. Also in 1936 Miró was included in the exhibitions Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The following year he was commissioned to create a monumental work for the Paris World’s Fair.
Miró’s first major museum retrospective was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1941. That year Miró began working in ceramics with Josep Lloréns y Artigas and started to concentrate on prints; from 1954 to 1958 he worked almost exclusively in these two mediums. He received the Grand Prize for Graphic Work at the Venice Biennale in 1954, and his work was included in the first Documenta exhibition in Kassel the following year. In 1958 Miró was given a Guggenheim International Award for murals for the UNESCO building in Paris. The following year he resumed painting, initiating a series of mural-sized canvases. During the 1960s he began to work intensively in sculpture. Miró retrospectives took place at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, in 1962, and the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1974. In 1978 the Musée National d’Art Moderne exhibited over five hundred works in a major retrospective of his drawings. Miró died on December 25, 1983, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Exhibitions:
2008 The Hands of Art, SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent
2007 Le Corps et son double, Galerie Jeanne-Bucher, Paris
2006 Tapestries, Bass Muesum of Art, Miami, FL
2005 Picasso to Plensa, A Century of Art in Spain Begin Date
2004 VIDEO ROSSO, Galleria Edieuropa, Rome
2003 Collagen, Galerie Biedermann, Munich
2002 Passioni D'Art, Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano
2001 Kunst aus Spanien, Galerie Ruf, Munich
2000 Master - Prints, Fischer Kunsthandel & Edition, Berlin
1983 "Joan Miró: A Ninetieth-Birthday Tribute" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
1983 "Joan Miró: anys 20. Mutació de la realitat" at the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
1978 Retrospective exhibition at the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, Madrid, organised in conjunction with the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
1976 Official opening of the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, with an exhibition of drawings from the collection donated by the artist.
1969 "Miró otro" exhibition at the College of Architects, Barcelona
1967 Installation of a ceramic mural, produced in collaboration with Josep Llorens Artigas, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
1966 Retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Art, Tokyo and in Kyoto
1964 - 1965 Retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London and at Kunsthaus de Zürich
1962 Retrospective exhibition at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
1957 Retrospective of the graphic works at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum of Krefeld. Exhibition presented in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hanovre and Hamburg
1956 Retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles at Stedelijk Museum d'Amsterdam at Kunsthalle de Bâle
1948 First solo exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris
1941 First large retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
1932 First one-man show at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
1930 First one-man show in the United States, at the Valentine Gallery, New York
1925 First solo exhibition at the Galerie Pierre, Paris.
1921 First solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie La Licorne, organised by Josep Dalmau.
